Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Drishtikone

Home
Hindu
Sathya Sai Baba: Miracles he did, just not the ones you think of

Sathya Sai Baba: Miracles he did, just not the ones you think of

Last updated on: May 1, 2011 at 10:47 pm by Desh Kapoor

Sathya Sai Baba: Miracles he did, just not the ones you think of 2011-05-01T22:47:23-05:00 Desh Kapoor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Truth exists at many levels. In media of today, however, “truth” is manufactured based on one’s agenda. Sathya Sai Baba died on Sunday this past weekend – which also happened to be the Easter Sunday. Sathya Sai Baba was many things to many people.

He has been an enigma and a fascinating being. The more people riled against him, the more his devotees increased. There were enough who took him to trial – even when he wasn’t present. And gave judgments because he wasn’t present. And since they had already pronounced him “guilty” in their own “court of law”, sans any representation from him, they took the entire story to the market and suddenly there was enough noise about it.

Its a good thing that Jesus died when he did. He would have had a tough time in today’s world. He is known for only miracles – like bringing people back to life et al. That was his least important accomplishment. In fact that shouldn’t even be remembered. Its the same with Sathya Sai Baba.

Devotion is a tough state to create in anyone in this day and age. People are so logical, full of themselves, that submission to anything is almost impossible. In fact, submission to any idea is considered a bad thing. Even in love. So, there is no complete love. Only conditional love. With contracts. We have escape routes and contracts tight enough to help us compete. In love. In relationships. And even in charity. We game our parents, our spouses, and even our children. No one lives completely.

In such times, when everyone is wary of everything and cannot submit, one would assume that people would be on their own and very happy? Well, even that ain’t the case. People who think highly of themselves, and hate submission in love and compassion, keep looking out for “unconditional love”. They wouldn’t give it, but they want to receive it. So, if a spouse cheats you, its a big issue. But if you lie to him, that’s fine. If your kid lies to you, that makes you angry or doesn’t respect you, that’s BIG. But if you don’t care for your word given to her or applaud only her good marks in school and achievements – that’s good parenthood. Gaming begets gaming. But, intriguingly, my Gaming is more kosher than your gaming! One is “truth” and the other is a lie.

So, in such circumstances, where people cannot completely have even fundamental love, is it possible to make people give themselves up? Sometimes, it requires becoming larger than life. And even beyond normal.

Sathya Sai Baba’s miracles and clairvoyant acts can be seen in that light.

Those who are obsessed with proving and disproving miracles can keep going on, but the level of devotion that Sathya Sai Baba commanded helped the devotees open themselves up to a lot more than money could buy or give.

The toughest thing today is for people to have devotion. And, despite the increased education and logical mind, the humans of today are ideological in their intellect. Poke at their ideological make up and they burn up. If Devotion doesn’t open up, If intellect is nothing more than a safeguard for one’s ideology, and one keeps either religiously following or pooh-poohing moral edicts (of whatever kind they may be) as a proxy for correct action – then what is the way to reaching a level where anything spiritual may occur in someone’s life?

That’s where such beings and “miracles” can come in.

But let us keep the spiritual side apart. Let’s assume he was a normal man incapable of anything spiritual. Let us first start with a list:

Education

Free educational institutes, hospitals and charities in 166 countries in all the livable continents.
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (now Sri Sathya Sai University) in Prashanthi Nilayam is the only college with “A++” rating by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (an autonomous body established by the University Grants Commission) with one campus each at Puttaparthi (men), Whitefield, Bangalore (men) and at Anantapur for women
Sri Sathya Sai Mirpuri College of Music (Insititute for Indian Classical Music).
Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Educational Institution, run by the Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Trust s considered to be one of the top boarding schools in the Bangalore region and primarily serves destitute lower caste students from nearby villages. It has over 70 world-class lecturers and professors. It is complete with a well equipped sports stadium, amphitheatre, auditorium, spiritual center, bank and grocery store, farm, and brand new computer labs. It was overseen by Sai Baba himself.(Baba gifts varsity campus to Muddenahalli)

Water and Housing

Sri Sathya Sai Drinking Water Supply projects cover 750 villages in drought-prone Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh (population of 1.2 million), and has been implemented at a cost of US$ 63 million.
The second Water project was completed in 2004, supplies water to Chennai through a rebuilt waterway named “Sathya Sai Ganga Canal” (Chennai benefits from Sai Baba’s initiative; Project Water) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi praised the Chennai water project and Sai Baba’s involvement (Karunanidhi shares dais with Sai Baba)
Another Medak District Project benefiting 450,000 people in 179 villages and the Mahbubnagar District Project benefitting 350,000 people in 141 villages
In 2008, after the devastating floods in Orissa, Sathya Sai Seva Organization built 699 houses as a part of their first phase in 16 villages by March 2009.

Hospitals and Health Care

Sri Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital in Puttaparthi is a 220 bed facility that provides free surgical and medical care and other patient care facilities to all, free of cost
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Bangalore is a 333 bed hospital meant to benefit the poor free of cost.
Sri Sathya Sai General Hospital was opened in Whitefield, Bangalore, in 1977 and provides complex surgeries, food and medicines free of cost. The hospital has treated over 2 million patients
Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust runs several general hospitals, two specialty hospitals, eye hospitals and mobile dispensaries and conducts medical camps in rural and slum areas in India
Educare program seeks to found schools throughout the world with the goal of educating children in the five human values and has founded schools in 33 countries around the globe including Australia, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Zambia and Peru. (Article in Times of Zambia on how the Sathya Sai schools have benefited the poor and the orphaned: Sathya Sai school: A decade of quality education)

Despite all this work, for which, even a layman can understand, millions would be spent year on year basis, just for the upkeep and operations – specially since it is free of cost to beneficiaries, yet at the highest quality that is in any country (Fraser Institute, an independent Canadian research and educational organization, ranked the Sathya Sai School of Canada as one of the top 37 elementary schools in Ontario) in which these institutions exist (like A++ ranking by UGC), what remains in the mainstream domain is the rhetoric that he was a charlatan and a cheat – because he did miracles that weren’t.

Many tried to prove that but couldn’t. But they were looking in the wrong direction. That someone could invoke devotion, by whatever means (many times benefiting the person on whom the miracle was being done), and inspire common men and women to use their money to fund and bring happiness to millions. in India and outside in many countries. That was indeed the real miracle. So, the B. Premanands of this world were blind. The real miracle was going on and they couldn’t see. They were obsessed with something only that of which their ego could fight against. Ask all the critics if anyone has ever brought happiness or a smile to a poor man or a woman?

And all this was achieved without any persecution, or conversion of anyone to Hinduism or criticising any other religion. There are enough evangelists – crook and cheats – whose ONLY aim in life is to convert people. And interestingly, their “shows” in India are all house full and attended by the mightiest of the land. Media, intriguingly, is very kind to them as well. Of course, B. Premanands of the land – skeptics and the so-called rationalists – have made a habit of missing their schedule as well. But when it comes to Sathya Sai Baba, their selective rationalism comes alive. And despite all the good that is done – without interrupting with anyone’s religious or ideological lives – the real miracle is completely missed!

Further ask them, if he really was in the wrong, why no one ever proved it so or indict him? Connections with the power brokers – comes back the answer.

Interestingly, I had to dig up for the projects that the Sathya Sai Baba institutions have done. They aren’t there on their own web-sites. Now, if Sai Baba REALLY had used all the powerful connections that supposedly saved him from the courts, they would surely have helped bring out the good work that the Baba had done. Specifically, given the ferociousness of the campaign against him.

But how many of us – non-devotees of the Baba – really knew of all this? What did you know of him? That he is a cheat and charlatan who just cheats people off of their money. What good comes out of that was no one’s business.

Mess him up on the one side you can, and leave the rest to the imagination of the gullible public – seems to have been the constant Mantra.

Compare this to the paragon of human service in India – Mother Teresa. How many homes did her organization create? And what was the condition of people there? Last time, my sister visited one of the homes, an old man came to her and whispered “Ma’am, are you the one serving food?” She nodded. “Can you give me one extra bread? They don’t give us enough to eat”. My sister couldn’t come to terms with that request! And Mother Teresa is a Saint.

But as the story goes……

Spirituality

Worship

Previous Post

April 28, 2011

Preparing for The Super Convergence: Rise of The Bio-Info-Nano Singularity

Next Post

May 2, 2011 Osama has bin laden!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Aarti Achievement and Leadership AfPak Africa Annual and Year-end Asia Audio Australia Behavioural Sciences Bhagwad Gita Bhagwad Gita Blogging Blogs Business Business Intelligence Business Strategy Cannes Careers Chanakya China Conservation Corruption Creative Daily Links Desh Poems Development & Welfare Devotional Audio Devotional Songs Drama Earth Economics Education Entertainment Environment Europe Everyday Quotes Featured Articles Featured Songs Finance Flickr Pictures Food Geo-Political Global Warming Globalization Health & Medicine Hinduism Historic History Humour India Indian Culture Indian music Indian Weddings Israel Issues Legal Link Love Minorities Misc Motivation and Personal Development Movie Lists Movie Reviews Movies Mumbai terror attacks Natural Disasters Nature News Outsourcing Pakistan Parenting Personal Philosophy Poetry Politics Poverty Quotes Recipe Regular Blog Post Relationships Religion Religious/Spiritual Audio Sciences Showcase Slideshow South Asia Special Stories Spiritual Quotes Spirituality Sports Stories Strategy Technology Technology Terrorism Travel Uncategorized US Video Women Women_s Rights Worship Yoga

Select a Month December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 September 2014 August 2014 January 2014 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I asked, 'What must I do to be saved?' after an earthquake freed my prisoners. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Cornelius The Ethiopian eunuch A Roman centurion The Philippian jailer